More To It

Chapter 19- Am Back!

Zaynab

“Heyyyy”,Fatima screams and runs over to me then hugs me tightly.

“Hey”,I chuckle at how excited she is. I get it, I haven’t seen her or the rest in a while.

“Look at my babies. Oh my Lawwddddddddd, the hotness is too much like”,both her and Aisha gush over the twins while fanning their faces.

“Y’all perverts, the f**k”,Aaleyah shakes her head which made everyone laugh. The twins start laughing also then they stop abruptly AT THE SAME FREAKING TIME. It just made us laugh harder.

“They look like their dad, he’s one hot one eh”,Aisha whispers to me.

I gasp lowly and smack her lightly then look at Abiodun who’s staring out the window with arms folded. I wonder what he thinking about, buuut, besides that. The pose he’s in right now just makes him look even more irresistible.

“I need a picture. Can you tell Abiodun to come over, I want a family picture”,Fatima tells me.

“Uh, Abiodun doesn’t like cameras. But I’ll try”.

“ABIODUN”,I call.

He doesn’t reply, he looks to be in a deep thought. I wonder what he’s actually thinking about.

“Hey, dude”,Fawaz pats Abiodun on the shoulder. Abiodun glances over at him and raises an eyebrow.

“The girls need you”,Fawaz snickers.

Abiodun looks over at us and raises an eyebrow at me.

“Yeah?“.

“The girls want a picture of me, you and the boys. Will you take just one?“.

He glances at Fatima and Aisha who have their phones ready then back at me.

“I don’t like cameras”,he says.

“Yeah, figured. Just take one of me and the boys”,I tell the girls.

“He’s a weird one”,Aisha mumbles.

“Not everyone likes cameras Aisha. Now shush and make me look even more fabulous”,I tell her.

She giggles then starts snapping random pictures of me hugging, kissing, looking and tickling my sons.

“MOMMY, MOMMY. It’s my turn to hold them”,Yousif yells and stands beside me.

“Aww, aren’t you so adorable”,Fatima ruffles his hair making him smile then he hides his face in my chest.

“Aww, look who’s suddenly shy”,I laugh along with Aaleyah, even his dad let out a chuckle.

“Yousif, baby, you can’t hold them yet. Your hands are tiny and remember yesterday you nearly dropped one of them”,I tell him.

“Yeah, but that was yesterday”,he frowns.

“Daddyyyy, tell mommy to let me carry them”,he whines then hugs Abiodun’s legs.

“Okay, the names are chosen”,daddy and uncle Aman both walk out with the imam.

“Yeah?“.

Everyone sits down waiting for them to tell us.

They turn towards the baby in Aamanee’s arms.

“Rakeem (compassionate)“.

“And”

Everyone turns to the one in my arms.

“Rasheed (wise and prudent)“.

I smile then glance at Abiodun who’s looking at the boys back and forth.

“Okay?“,daddy asks him.

Abiodun tears his gaze from the boys and looks at daddy.

“Uh sure”,he mumbles.

After that, everyone just started coming up to greet me and check out the boys. I hand Rasheed over to mommy before getting up and made my way towards Abiodun.

“Hey”,I pat his shoulder tearing his intense gaze from the window and now towards me.

“Hey”,he mumbles.

“Everything okay?“.

“Yeah”,he shrugs.

“You know you can talk to me.....about anything”.

“I know. But it’s nothing”.

“It’s your birthday, why do you look so down?“,I frown.

“Nothing. It’s nothing, am just tired”.

“Okay, sad ting. But it’s a good thing you’re finally moving in today”.

“Yeah”,he chuckles then rests his head against the wall.

“Stop being so moody. Come on, do you want to eat?“,I pull him by the arm towards the couch then sit him down beside Aayan who’s playing with one of the twins.

“You want to hold him?“,Aayan holds him out to Abiodun. Abiodun places him on his lap and stares down at, I think Rasheed, then he cracks a smile when Rasheed smiles showing his gums. When Abiodun smiled, Rasheed then erupts in a 5 second laughter, Abiodun chuckles and Rasheed laughs harder.

“Oh my God”, everyone starts laughing as the two have their moment. Rasheed just kept laughing every time Abiodun smiled or let out a chuckle which in turn made Rakeem also join his brother. The two just filled the room with their tiny, adorable, baby laughter. It’s the most adorable and sweetest sounds I’ve ever heard, like music to my ears.

Abiodun looks down at his phone which had been vibrating for a while now then he takes it out and accepts it. He gives Rasheed over to Mommy then he stands up and walks past me in a hurry and heads straight into the hallway.

“What is this boy up to?“, I whisper to myself with a sigh then shake my head. Hopefully it’s nothing bad, I don’t think I can deal with anymore “events” like.

“Drink some ogi, it will help with producing milk for them”, mommy Adelola hands me my specialized mug filled with ogi.

“I’ve been drinking ogi since morning, I think I have enough milk already”, I tell her but she wasn’t having it like. Like, are you trying to get my stomach to explode with ogi?

“You don’t have one but TWO boys to feed and boys tend to eat more, you sad yourself that they take a while to eat. You need to be well prepare-”

As she was talking, the twins starts to cry, AT THE SAME FREAKING TIME. What are they? twi- never mind, that sounded stupid in my head like.

“SEE? They’re hungry, quickly drink some and then go feed them. The rest of us will see the guests off”, she tells me. I don’t even bother arguing, she’ll win anyways, so I just drink as much as I could considering that it is pretty hot at the moment.

*OGI- fermented cereal pudding from Nigeria, usually made from maize, millets*

“Will you hurry up and come feed them, they won’t stop crying”, Aayan tells me as he tries to shake Rasheed to silence but my baby wasn’t having it. His cries just increased, it seemed as if Rakeem was just mimicking Rasheed because when he laughs, then Rakeem laughs and when Rasheed cries, then he cries and when his cries increased in volume then Rakeem’s cries increased. I don’t think I’ve seen anything like it, EVER. I know Aayan and Khalid do similar things SOMETIMES, it’s even rare sef.

“Hold on, I have to drink this first”, I tell him then glance at the entrance as Abiodun walks in with what seems to be a look of discomfort. I hope he’s okay. He’s not usually like this, am actually concerned like.

He looks at Rasheen and takes him from Aayan. Wallahi, as soon as Abiodun told him to “shush”, Rasheed kept quiet.

“Well, well, well. I think it’s pretty obvious to say, those two are going to be a daddy’s boy”, Fatima smiles which the rest agree with then they all chuckle when Rakeem also stopped crying.

“Will you feed them? This one’s trying to eat my finger”, Abiodun tells me.

“L O FREAKING L. Wait one sec, am nearly finished with this”, I tell him and start to drink the remaining of the ogi a bit faster. Once done, I place it down on the table just as the rest start getting ready to leave.

“Take care yeah, and good luck with them late nights with em boys”, Fatima chuckles as I hug and kiss her.

“Ah, girl, I know imma need it. Thanks babez”, I smile then hug Aisha and the rest of the girls then the guys and finally, Amari. The girl is okay but am not really into her like that for what she did. For me, personally, I don’t f**k with girls that be talking to men that have a lady already. She knew I was married to Khalid at the time and still continued entertaining him, if it was me, imma step aside like. But other than that, she’s actually really nice and sort of shy. She’s an arab and is slim, nice cheekbones, the girl is beautiful AND her style is too freaking saucy. Right now, she has on an oversized shirt with black trousers but she has the shirt half tucked in at the front and back. Then she topped it off with a white hijab thrown loosely behind her and black heels. And her make up is too peng. She’s definitely someone I would be friends with if she didn’t talk to Khalid but I guess I do have to befriend her anyways since she’s married to him. What exactly can I do anyways. Am married and actually happy, not that I don’t miss Khalid, I do, but we ain’t compatible so why dwell on something that you can’t get....right? Plus I love my time with Abiodun, ever since he changed, I just love his company.

“That was a nice gathering”, Aaleyah sits on the couch and covers her face tiredly.

“Yeah, felt nice to have the rest of them here. I feel like I haven’t seen them in years, was nice”, I smile and place Rasheed in the twin baby swing cradle beside his brother who’s fast asleep.

“Anyways we should get going”,Fawaz looks at Aaleyah who stands up.

“Good luck and see you soon”,I hug her, Aamanee, Amari, Fawaz, Aayan and Khalid.

“Bye”,the boys nod at Abiodun who hums.

I see them off and wait till they all drove off before closing the door.

“Yousif is also asleep”,Abiodun takes off his shirt and throws it into the laundry basket then puts on basketball shorts and gets in bed.

“Yeah? I swear that boy betta not come in here after like 5 minutes complaining about sleeping alone”.

I fix my nightgown then walk over to the bed and get in beside him.

“This is the first time after since so long”,I whisper then look at Abiodun who has his hand over his eyes.

“If you’re not comfortable, I can go sleep in the next room”,he whispers without even looking at me.

“Don’t be silly. Course not. Hey, babe what’s wrong?“,I ask him.

“Nothing”,he replies blandly.

“Abiodun”,I get closer to him and hug his chest.

I could instantly feel his muscles tighten up so I quickly move my hand away.

“What’s wrong with you? You don’t want me to touch you?“,I ask him.

“No. No. That’s not it”,he sighs then he finally turns to me.

“Am really tired. That’s it”.

“Maybe it’s all that moving houses and on top of that you’ve been working a lot for the past few weeks too. Let me give you a massaged”.

I sit up on my knees then reach over the desk and pick up the oil bottle for joint pains.

“It’s fine, am fine. Go to bed, who knows when the boys will start crying again. Go to bed”,he tells me.

“Oh. Um okay”,I whisper then lay back in bed awkwardly while playing with my finger.

“What’s wrong?“,I hear him ask but I just shake my head.

“You want something to happen?“.

“YES. We’re married now and we talked about our night, I’ve been looking forward to it. After all the stressful morning routine today, all I was looking forward to was this.....but I don’t know. You’re acting weird for some reason. But it’s okay. We can sleep”,I tell him then wrap my body with the covers.

“Hey!“,he calls and pulls the cover.

“Abiodun, it’s fine really. Whatever you’re going through, when you’re ready to tell me, YOUR WIFE, then you can. But until then, I don’t know. I’ll give you your space”,I shrug.

“Good night”.

I hear him sigh but he doesn’t say anything so I just put the covers back on.

***

“YOUSIF”,I call while trying to get the twins to keep quiet, all they’ve been doing is crying ever since Abiodun left for work. He left pretty early too, I wonder what’s going on through that boy’s mind like.

“YOUSIF”, I scream but this boy still doesn’t reply which honestly just got me even more annoyed. How can you be just down the hall and not hear me yelling your name.

“YOUSIFFFFF!“.

“YES MOMMY”, he finally replies then I hear his tiny feet run down the hallway before appearing in front of me with his PlayStation controller in his right hand.

“Didn’t you hear me calling you since? It’s 11 in the morning, why are you playing on your PS at this time?“.

“I wanted to”, he frowns.

“Y-, you know what, forget that. Get me the twins diapers from my rom and also bring their bibs for me”.

He nods then runs up the stairs.

“Hey baby, it’s okay”, I pat Rasheed’s butt and rub Rakeem’s back but I swear it just increased their cries.

“There you go mommy, can I go now?“, Yousif asks me as he places the diapers an d bibs on the couch.

“No you cant, help me with your brothers”, I pull him down on the couch beside me then place Rakeem on his lap and put Rasheed on mine.

“But mommy, am going to l-”

“YOUSIF. Keep quiet, your dad isn’t here and I need help with your brothers, do you want me to tell him that while mommy was struggling, you didn’t help at all?“, I ask him while changing Rasheed’s diapers.

“No”, Yousif frowns then he groans loudly. Rakeem who was looking at him stop crying and looks up at Yousif with a look of confusion and his bottom sticking out.

“Look, mommy he stopped crying”, Yousif giggles.

“That’s good baby, here, try to stop Rasheed from crying while I change Rakeem’s diapers”, I hand Rasheed over to him and take Rakeem instead. Wallahi, as I took him from Yousif and placed him on my lap, his head and eyes were fixated on Yousif who’s making funny faces at Rasheed who’s just staring at him like, “Is you okay big brother?“. LOL, the facial expression is EVERYTHING.

“Thanks baby, throw these in the bin and wash your hands WITH SOAP right after”. He nods then places Rasheed in the swing cradle before running into the kitchen. I lift my shirt and start to feed Rakeem, after that, I take Rasheed and place him on my left lap and also start to feed him.

“Mommy, am hungry”, Yousif frowns while staring at me feeding the twins. I swear this boy and food.

“Will you eat the pasta in the fridge?“, I ask him but he quickly shakes his head and sways from side to side.

“I want amala and stew”.

OMGGGGGG!

“Okay, let me feed your brothers first then I’ll make you yours, it will take a while though”, I warn him hoping that he’d change his mind but the boy didn’t care. He just shrugged then ran down the hall back into the game room.

The doorbell rings so I put down my shirt, put the twins back into the cradle then put on my hijab.

“It’s okay, am sorry”, I quickly put pacifiers into the twins mouth to stop them from crying, thankfully Rakeem did but Rasheed just spat it back out and continued crying even louder so I just pick him up and rub his back as I make my way to the door. I unlock the door then open it revealing a middle aged man. He’s in a loose black shirt and black trousers, everything just seemed plain. His face, however, his face seemed cold and heavy, like he was looking for something but couldn’t find it. I don’t know, it’s weird.

“Good morning, sorry, this face is unfamiliar to me, do I know you?“, I ask him when he doesn’t say anything. He’s literally just staring at Rasheed who’s still crying in my arms.

“Is he your son?“, he asks.

“Uh, yeah”.

“Is Abiodun here?“, he asks after. Abiodun? Ohhh, maybe he’s a ‘friend’ of Abiodun.

“Not at the moment, but if you give me your name and message, I can pass it onto him”.

“You’re his wife?“.

“Uh, yes. Sorry, I don’t mean to be rude, but is this important? I really need to feed him or he won’t stop crying”, I smile apologetically while also stepping side to side trying to get Rasheed to stop all the screaming.

“No problem, when Abiodun gets home, tell him Philip is back and we’ll be meeting again soon enough”, he smiles a little then he turns around and walks towards his car, gets in and drives off.

“What kind of discombobulating s**t is this?“, I whisper to myself as I watch his car disappear with confusion. Philip? No last name? No nothing? How’s he supposed to know which Philip it is like. You be someone special? That he’d know who you are just by your first name?

***

“Okay, YOUSIF, come eat”.

All I hear is his little footsteps coming towards the dining room. I place a piece of beef on his mixture of gbegiri (type of African stew) and stew as he takes his seat.

“Okay wash your hand”,I push the bowl of clean water in front of him. He does as told then looks up at me with a frown.

“Mommy you took so looooong. I nearly died of hungry”,he tells me and kicks his legs.

“Oh baby, you and your exaggeration. *chuckles* it’s not dying of hungry Yousif, it’s dying of HUNGER”,I correct him but he just shakes his head at me.

“Stop being sassy and eat up”,I tell him then kiss his head.

“Mommy this is really nice”,he smiles happily while kicking his legs and rocking on the chair back and forth.

“Aww thanks baby-“.

The twin’s giggling laughter fills the entire house which interrupted my sentence. Why are they all of a sudden in a good mood!

“I think daddy’s here”,Yousif smiles then he jumps off his chair then runs into the living room.

“Yousif, you can’t keep leaving your food”,I let out an annoyed groan then walk towards the living room when I hear Yousif let out a very loud scream.

“Boy stop scr-“.

“YOU?!“,I let out with shock.

Phillip who has Rasheed in his arms turns to me with a sinister smile.

“Wh-what are you doing here? How did you get in my house?“,I ask him.

“Now is that any way to great your father-in-law?“,he smiles.

“My father-in-law is dead and even if he wasn’t, the assholes an ASS”,I snap.

He raises an eyebrow then he drops Rasheed carelessly on the couch.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING?“,I scream at him then rush over to Rasheed who’s already crying so I put him on my chest and pat his butt.

“GET OUT OF MY HOUSE. NOW!“,I yell but all he did was smile.

“Yousif get behind me”,I push him beside Rakeem who’s still in his cradle.

“Who do you think you’re raising your voice at?“,he walks towards us but as he reaches my face he stops and smirks.

“Tell MY SON, his father is back. Watch yo tone next time lil girl. I see he isn’t teaching you any manners. Remind me to talk to him about that pumpkin”,he pats my cheek a few times then he looks down at my kids with a smile.

“At least you did something right. 3 boys? That’s something eh”,he winks at Yousif then he turns around and walks out of the living room leaving me all shaken. I could literally feel my pulse and heartbeat racing while my breathing increases.

“Oh my God. Oh my God”,I breath out and put Rasheed back into the cradle quickly before falling onto the couch. I hold my head and chest at the same time in attempt to try to calm myself.

“Mommy”,Yousif whispers then he hugs me tightly.

“Am sorry baby. Am so sorry”,I hug him and kiss his head repeatedly.

I pick up my phone from the table and rapidly dial Abiodun’s phone. As if expecting my call, fortunately, he accepts the call on the second ring.

Him: hey ba-

Me: come home. Come home, now. Please just come home

Him: what’s wrong? Why do you sound so shaken up? Is everything okay?

Me: your father broke into the house. He came by like about 3 hours before, said his name was Philip and to tell you he’s back then 3 hours later, he broke in, he was varying Rasheed, he dropped him on the couch and and and he- *pants heavily*

Him: on my way, loci every single window in that house. Close the doors, stay in our bedroom and keep it locked until I get there

Me: locked? Wh-why? W-

Him: just do it! Keep the kids with you

Me: o-okay. Please hurry, am really scared

Him: am sorry

He hangs up so I pick Rasheed up in my arms then hand Rakeem over to Yousif.

“Go up to my room with him. Am right behind you”.

Thankfully he doesn’t argue or say anything back. He just obeys while I pack the twins bags. I carry that plus Rasheed then head up the stairs behind Yousif. Once in the room, I place the twins on the bed beside Yousif them close the windows and curtains.

“I’ll go check downstairs, don’t come out of this room, okay?“,I look at Yousif who nods his head frantically. I run out of the room as fast as I could and start locking all the windows and doors. Once done, I head back up the stairs and enter my room. I close the door and lock it with the room key.

“Mommy, what’s happening?“,Yousif asks me.

“Nothing baby, daddy’s coming home”.

“Okay”,he whispers.

“Am hungry”,he frowns.

“Oh, that’s right, you didn’t finish your food”,I sigh.

“Can you hold it? Your father will be here soon”.

He frowns then lays back in bed holding his stomach.

“Am sorry baby”,I hug and kiss him but he just ignores me and takes my phone.

“What are you doing?“.

“Games”.

Mmmmm